MATCH REPORT: Warwickshire win by five wickets at Aigburth
Warwickshire chased down a victory target of 250 runs in 39.5 overs to win by five wickets in the second Metro Bank One Day Cup match at Liverpool this week despite a List A career-best 4-48 by Jack Blatherwick.
Having opted to bat, Lancashire found the wicket slower and producing more spin than the previous match against Durham two days earlier, with the visitor’s spin quartet bowling 33 of the 50 overs and taking eight wickets to restrict Lancashire to a total of 249-9 in an innings where four batters went beyond 40 with any making a half century.
An excellent 72 by Zen Malik in partnership with Hamza Shaikh (75) led the Warwickshire reply which had slightly stalled at 81-3.
After Malik became Blatherwick’s fourth wicket, Shaikh settled in alongside Kai Smith to steer the visitors to within five runs of their target before Smith hit the winning runs in a victory that keeps their top three hopes very much alive.
Lancashire wrap up their Metro Bank One Day Cup campaign on Tuesday when Middlesex visit Emirates Old Trafford.
Lancashire recovered well after losing Michael Jones caught behind to the second ball of the match off Ethan Bamber (1-17 off 6 overs) with George Bell and Kesh Fonseka laying a solid platform with 88 runs from the following 19 overs.
Fonseka, replacing the injured Josh Bohannon and playing in his fourth List A game, mixed sound defence with a variety of attacking drives and pulls, including a six pulled over square leg off Ed Barnard, in making his best score of 43. But his attacking intent also brought about his downfall when a fierce drive off leg spinner Taz Ali was superbly caught low down by Shaikh at short cover.
Bell continued in a similar positive vein following his maiden century here two days ago but fell lbw sweeping at Ali for 46 with Lancashire 43-3 in the 22nd over as spinners Ali, Rob Yates and Jake Lintott began to exert their grip.
Marcus Harris and Harry Singh rebuilt with a steady partnership of 68 runs inside 14 overs before both perished to consecutive deliveries from Yates. Singh pulled the last ball of the 35th over into the hands of Alex Davies on the midwicket boundary having made 29 off 35 balls, and Marcus Harris was bowled for 41 off 56 balls at the start of Yates’ next over.
When George Balderson pulled a short Ali delivery to Shaikh at midwicket for 2, Lancashire were struggling on 167-6 one ball into the 39th over.
Some late order hitting over the final ten overs, led by Arav Shetty – who continued to enhance his burgeoning reputation with an assured 30-ball innings of 40 – helped push the score up to 249-9 by the close of the innings, with the Warwickshire spinners dominance producing combined figures of 8-160.
Yates and Ed Barnard started the visitor’s reply in ferocious style, taking 44 runs from the first 25 deliveries before the latter’s attempt to ramp Blatherwick to fine leg instead gave a catch to wicketkeeper Bell, Barnard having hit 1 six and 3 fours in making 21 off 13 balls.
Batting partner Yates followed after hitting a run-a-ball 23, by pulling his 24th to Balderson at mid-on off Blatherwick to have Warwickshire 63-2 midway through the ninth over.
Blatherwick next produced a climbing delivery that Alex Davies could only fend to Bell having made 8, and at 81-3 Lancashire had got themselves back into the game.
A 39-ball half century by Malik, his first in List A cricket, containing two sixes and 6 fours, well supported by Shaikh in a partnership of 87 runs from 16 overs, led the visitor’s riposte to Red Rose ambitions.
Malik had raced to 72 off 58 balls before he carved a short Blatherwick delivery high to Jones on the cover boundary, but Shaikh and Kai Smith (45 not out) calmly picked off 77 of the 82 runs required, the former reaching his half century off 74 balls.
Luke Hands bowled Shaikh with five runs requiring leaving Smith to clinch victory with Warwickshire 253-5 and 10.1 overs to spare.
“It's always nice to come back in after a bit of time out of the game for injury and put a performance in, but it's a bit bitter-sweet,” admitted Jack Blatherwick.
“It's a shame we couldn't get the win there and drive us to the victory, but I'm pleased (with my performance),” he added.
“There's a bit of work to do, but I think we're in a good spot as a young team.
“We've just said in the changing room we were probably 80 to 100 runs light there.
“We had five or six batters get in and we lost a few wickets between 30 and 46 overs, which probably killed the momentum a little bit.
“It wasn't the easiest pitches to start on, but once you got in, you could make some runs.
“So, I think that's where we went wrong today.
“We didn't start great with the ball,” he said.
“But we sort of wrestled that momentum back. And I thought we'd put up a good performance, but it was, like I said, just a few runs too short today.”
Ken Grime
Photos: Dan Adams